My String Theory

A big thank you today to My String Theory , a fellow etsy seller who has just started her own blog. She very kindly chose me to be her first featured creator, click here to see her blog and also link to her shop of gorgeous hand felted items. : )

thank you!

Thanks everyone for the herbs idea for my decorations, I will definately be looking into it. And thanks as well for the kind comments about our hall floor, it will probably be a while before the whole room is finished but it's nice now that we have finally started to get somewhere with it. I thought I would show you today another new item, the latest padded purse, in my favourite colours of the moment, a spring green and turquoise with warmer pinks and reds. : )

new!

Following on from my soft snowflake christmas decorations, an idea has been rattling around in my head for a while and finally emerged as this 'soft decoration' above. It is double sided so can hang anywhere and add a little something to cupboards, door handles, noticeboards, or anywhere else with a hook or pin! This one is in my etsy shop now, and a few more will follow soon. Here is our finished hall floor, it needs a good clean but we want to leave it to set for a while longer before we make it wet, but we are very pleased with it and can't wait to start on the walls now... And lastly, thanks very much to Cicada Studio for including me in her treasury, thanks cicada! : )

back to school

Holly is back to school after half term tomorrow, taking with her her very first pair of school plimsolls. For some reason she is very excited about this! We managed to get a lot finished today, I finished Hollys cushion (too dark to take a picture yet) and have started the second one, and Stuart finished our hall floor, which looks amazing. I haven't taken a picture yet as we have scaffold board bridges over it until the glue has dried. I have also been featured in this etsy treasury, which always makes me smile. : )

the weekend

A busy one this week, which revolved around diy, and included a visit a day to various diy shops. I did manage to make a start on one of Hollys cushions, I am quilting the top (after it taking me a good while in the dusty loft to find the wadding) and keeping it simple by just going around the shapes in the fabric design. I'm quite hopeful for the result, and can't wait to finish it now. Holly and I also spent some time playing in the garden to avoid the house, (see below) and we had lots of fun blowing these bubbles. They are very hard to take pictures of! And Stuart spent his day laying our new oak floor in the hall, it's going to look great when it is finished, we will have a proper floor! The walls are the ones I was getting the wallpaper off the other day, so things are coming along slowly. : )

spring

Its just one day to go until the weekend, and I am certainly ready for it even after having a short week at work. We have been busy at home doing DIY, Stuart replacing floorboards and preparing for laying a new floor in our hall, and me stripping wallpaper. I had the last bits to do last night which are quite high up (our house is victorian and has high ceilings) and it was very hot being underneath the wallpaper steamer. And, mean, horrible, boiling hot bits of wallpaper kept gluing themselves to my arms, ouch! Once that was finished me and my stiff arms sat down to do some sewing, above is my second new style purse to show you, last night I almost finished the third. And here are the beginnings of the crocus' and alliums that Holly and I planted in the autumn, this picture was taken last weekend so hopefully when we have a look tomorrow they will be closer to flowering. : )

I love this!

This cute little postcard is from the etsy shop from japan with love and I certainly do love it. I couldn't resist buying it for Holly's bedroom, it is far too nice to use as a postcard and instead I have put it in a simple white frame. The photo isn't great, you can't really see that it a collage made up of lovely papers, and no it won't be staying propped up on the window, if nothing else it is far too precarious! : )

A long post today...

Ok, first up is a completely new project which has just gone into my etsy shop, I made the front circle as a separate piece that has been lightly padded before being sewn onto the front. I am really pleased how this has turned out, the padding seems to add another dimension to an otherwise flat item. I have already started the second one, hopefully pictures soon. And after a request from a certain sister, below are pictures of the fabric I got at Ikea yesterday, the ones in the first picture I couldn't resist, the one in the second is going to become a couple of cushions for Hollys bedroom, once I've been in the loft and found my quilting fabric... And this last picture is of the tea party Holly and I had yesterday, the party food was an eclectic mix of biscuits, cakes and cooked items like peas and onions, which were part of Hollys christmas present from her Aunty Sarah. (They taste great by the way, although not so great if you have an onion and then a cookie) : )

We're back!

If you also read my sisters blog (paper and string) this picture will make sense, but who got to it first, me or Holly? We actually got back yesterday tea time, had a lovely weekend, why does the time always go too quickly??? After a 3.5 hour journey to get there on friday night (Holly slept all the way apart from about 15 minutes when she woke up to dance to the radio) we didn't do anything to energetic on saturday, went to see my nan, then went out to lunch with her and mum and dad. It was yummy! Then we went to a big garden centre where I bought some really nice ribbon (yes, it really was a garden centre) and then in the evening we sat with a glass of wine and watched the final of the dreadful-but-had-to-see-who-won programme 'the one and only'. Sunday turned out to be a gorgeous blue sky day, so we went for a walk in the woods before going to say bye to nan and heading home. Holly took this picture of our shadows And today is the start of half term, and I had today and also tomorrow off work. Holly and I have had great fun today, we went to Ikea, (got lots of good things but of course the one thing I went for, a mirror, was out of stock, possibly discontinued!?!) went to the park on Hollys scooter (yes I had a go - ok a few) made pizzas for our tea and watched 'Ratatouille' on dvd. Then a quick bath for Holly and she is now in bed. I got myself a film for tonight as Stuart is away on a course, I got 'The Nanny Diaries', I'll let you know if its any good. I've had a couple of days away from sewing so I am looking forward to sitting down with my started project later, I also got some great fabric in Ikea and want to start something with that too... : )

nearly the weekend!!

I ended up having a busy Valentine's evening, first we had Holly's parents evening at school, which unfortunately Stuart missed as he was stuck in traffic on the M25. When he got home we played Hollys new 'Going on a bear hunt' game which was fun, we all managed to escape the bear (phew!). I got given some very lovely perfume for Valentine's Day, and Stuart cooked the dinner, and although I didn't do any sewing I did cut out and pin the start of a new piece. And above is a newly finished piece that I gave you a glimpse of a while ago now, which is my first attempt at incorporating more fabrics in a different way. We are off to Plymouth for the weekend, to see my mum, dad and nan, will be back sunday evening hopefully with some good pictures to share. : )

new and an award!

First, here is the only box that I have made that is a slightly larger size, and also a sneaky peek of a new project underway. I don't know where this week has gone, thursday tomorrow already!! And Valentine's Day, I remembered to buy a card for Holly this year as last year it got quite tricky to explain valentine's day. All the ways to describe it, for example: 'you get a card for the person you love' etc, sort of had the answer, but don't you love me? etc etc. So last year I ended up running downstairs and making one in about two seconds flat that we then pretended had been there all along! And thank you to Indigo Blue , for this award: The Award originally came from Arte Y Pico's Blog The Award rules are: * Post the award on your own blog.(Post who gave it to you) *Indicate its original link and link to that site. (Arte Y Pico from Uruguay) *Give the ward to 5 other blogs that you enjoy, find creative and inspire you. and the five people I'm going to pass it on to are: paper and string scrap4u I'm a ginger monkey cicada daydream high desert diva because you all brighten my day! : )

meadow

The second little box has now made it into my shop at long last! And here is a picture of what Holly and I got up to at the weekend, we bought new plants and repotted her tub, which you can see her watering. My nan and grandad bought her the snow white and dwarves a while ago, and we have this placed right outside our patio doors as it looks so cheerful. I have had a busy evening of sewing, two new projects completed and one half in my head, half cut out bits of fabric! : )

spring is coming!

At last, I have managed to take a picture of the three boxes all together to show you. Hopefully these will be in my shop over the next couple of days. I have also finished the slightly larger box too, pictures soon! This weekend the weather has been wonderful, blue skies and sunny days, even if it is rather cold! Holly and I couldn't resist these daffodils for the kitchen which were tight buds yesterday and look at them now! And I thought you might like to see our brussels sprout mountain (plus one parsnip) freshly dug from our allotment. I wonder what we will be having for dinner tonight... : )

front page of etsy!!!

I had to do a quick post, as my sister ( paper-and-string ) has just phoned to tell me I am on the front page of etsy!!! What a way to start the day. : )

raspberries

Well here's what's left of the tart, it isn't really looking its best anymore but help yourself! I am aching today after my body combat class, hopefully I have worked off some of the tart though. Was too tired to do any sewing afterwards, but I did have the beginnings of some new ideas as I sat on the sofa and watched Gordon Ramsay try and turn around a restaurant in America. (on the programme Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmare's USA). I haven't been able to take pictures of the rest of my boxes yet due to the miserable weather and not getting home from work until the best light has gone, but the green one has now made it into my etsy shop. : )

12 years

Monday marked twelve years together for Stuart and I, so I cooked us a nice meal as a surprise for when he got home from work. We had 'ragu bianco' which was delicious, (not really down to me as the recipe was really easy) and then a raspberry and almond tart that was nearly scuppered by Holly who kept eating all the raspberries! I very hopelessly didn't manage to get any photos, mainly because it was such a rush to get done in time, I was still dusting icing sugar as he came in the front door and had to send Holly to stall him! But I did take a picture of the present I got for him, which is from tvtrayarts etsy shop. They are just the cutest cufflinks, and Stuart was very pleased with them. I'm off to have some more raspberry tart now, there is loads left, want some? : )

wrapping

Above is a parcel all ready to go to the post office today, inside is the first of my new design pouches that I showed you all a few days ago. It is off to its new home today, luckily I have just finished a new one, which is below, and has just been added to my etsy shop. I took a few more pictures of my green box from yesterdays post last night, if they are ok then the box will probably make it into my shop tonight. Another two boxes are now under construction, but the weather here is dreadful today so I think photos will have to wait. A question was asked in my comments about whether I am thinking of making a larger version, it's possible but I haven't worked out yet how much larger it could go, I'm also thinking of the possibility of sets. Anyway, have a good day, I've got my fingers crossed that I don't get wet on my bike... : )

: )

I'm really excited to share with you my newest project! One of the first things I started making with a view to having an etsy shop was fabric boxes. But I ended up discarding this idea as I thought posting them would be a problem. But on Friday night I sat down with my pile of felt and came up with a design that can fold flat, and has a separate strengthened bottom piece that you put in to make it stronger when it is in use. Here is the first one, I have two more under construction, but I'm not too happy with these photos so they might not go into my shop until I get a chance to take better ones. They are approximately 10cm square, so will fit into most places and hold lots of things for you! Our weekend was really busy this week and included having a late christmas celebration! I spent part of Saturday wrapping christmas presents which seemed very bizarre, but the day itself was a lot of fun. We travelled to Essex to Stuart's parents home, and in total there were 18 people, so it was a full house. It was such a late celebration as it was the first date everyone could do, and it was lovely to see everyone. We even had a christmas tree! Pop back this week as I have lots of things to post and will space them out rather than have one really really long post today. : )

Friday (and February) already!

It has been yet another hectic week, and I found it almost impossible to get out of bed this morning. At least it was dry today for my cycle into work. I have managed to complete two new items this week so far, but due to the horrible weather I have no photos to show you yet, I plan to get that done tomorrow. So instead of a pictureless post I thought I would show you a picture of where we are hoping to go on holiday in the summer, the beautiful island of Crete. We have been there three times already but it is a perfect place to go with small children. It is proving a lot more elusive this year to get a deal that we can afford, not least because we now have to go in the school holidays. I have my fingers crossed that we find somewhere! and my toes... : )